Tom Hiddleston has a lengthy feature in the new issue of Empire Magazine this week. And the feature is SO boring. I know you guys love CuddleHiddles and DancingHiddles and SnakeHipsHiddles, but I actually think Tom is trying to get away from that aspect of his fandom. Much like Benedict Cumberbatch finally had enough last year, Tom is trying to serious-up his image and not be so “silly.” Will it work? Maybe. But he’s putting me to sleep now. You can read the full Empire piece here. Some highlights:
Whether he read The Night Manager book: “I read the script first. I read episode one in April last year. And then I read the book. The script was only 60 pages; it was so brilliant. Jonathan Pine, this ex-soldier, so patient, charming, disciplined, completely hidden. A night manager in Switzerland. A man of service, a man of discipline. It was all so brilliantly constructed. That was clear. So I just jumped on as quickly as I could. Hugh Laurie and I kind of jumped on before the adaptation was complete.
The benefits of Englishness: “The book is amazing. It is amazing to act in any book adaptation, because a book gives you so many secrets and details that don’t necessarily get shot in an adaptation. They give you a cushion underneath everything. The detail in the character, the detail in the tone. What le Carré is so good at is unpicking something very specific about Englishness. That is almost part of why I think he wrote the novel. You can feel le Carré’s anger that someone who has had the benefits of an English education and an English upbringing is using that privilege to basically do the worst things imaginable. There is an anger in the book about that.”
Tom has daddy issues: “Doing this with Hugh [Laurie] has been amazing not least because it happens to be one of his favourite novels, and he has been trying to be in an adaptation of the novel for about 25 years. I think he wanted to play Jonathan Pine, many years ago. And his authority over the material has been an amazing thing to be around. The Pine-Roper relationship is really interesting because it is almost like a father-son relationship. They are quite similar in lots of ways: in manner, taste, experience and sophistication, they are cut from the same cloth. It is just that one has an unflinching moral sense of right and wrong, and the other, as le Carré writes, is the “worst man in the world”.
The hunger for more complicated spies: “Yes. There is stuff going on behind the curtain. And this kind of material appeals to that desire to see behind the curtain: what deals are being made? Who is in whose pocket? That is what our headlines are made up of now – when you see that high finance is in bed with politics, which is in bed with the media. You think, well, who is in with who? There are all these conflicts of loyalty and interests, and how does that play when the stakes are high? What do I know? I’m just an actor…”
While I don’t doubt that the Pine-Roper relationship is supposed to have some father-son moments, that also seems to be a running theme with Tom’s filmography, and a Freudian would have a field day with Tom and how he’s drawn to certain projects. My eye also caught on Tom’s use of “privilege” to describe the Roper character’s education and upbringing, as if posh toffs just aren’t supposed to get into arms dealing because…they’re supposed to use their white, posh privilege for something else, I suppose.
Photos courtesy of ‘TNM’ and Fame/Flynet.
Serious Tom for serious projects. Silly, dancing Tom for comic book projects.
LOL @lilacflowers !
Agreed.
That makes too much sense.
It’s ironic because his next project to film is Thor 3. As Maz Kanata would say, “you’re right back in the mess!” The Night Manager may be his best project yet. I never saw so many close ups of someone’s eyeball before, we sure know what color TH’s eyes are.
Just wait until he gets married… he’ll be a real snoozer then, Kaiser.
I wasn’t wowed by episode 1 with the way they steamrolled over Sophie’s story and the occasional cheesey dialogue, but I’d say it was an improvement over CP and ISTL. You’re right about the closeups, there were quite a lot of those.
His Radio Times article on spying was so much better than all these pasted together interviews.It is a shame there is not an internet link available.I am am sure somebody must have scanned it for his fans.
There not blue they’re green!!! I have ten links to prove his eyes are green. How dare you ruin his reputation by saying they’re blue! Lol
That’s the traditional argument on here out of the way 😉
The left eye is green! The right is blue! The combined effect makes us all confused, unbalanced, and giddy.
They’re the color of sunshine.
So well put Cranberry
Never seen green or blue sunshine!
@spidey I’m going to sue you for that because I’m the perfect Hiddles Fan and I’m more better than you etc etc lol
They’re are green, maybe Aqua or greeny blue etc etc 100 links proving my point for a non event lol
Haha, KittyKat – there is no point in suing someone if they haven’t any money. And what are your grounds for suing? 🙂
Getting really bored of seeing ‘white privilege’ mentioned in every article about a white person.
That is because this board likes to say inflammatory things to get its readers to be riled up in a debate for more clicks.
Surely, you jest?
“Posh toffs just aren’t supposed to get into arms dealing because…they’re supposed to use their white, posh privilege for something else.”
I mean, yes? It seems like a pretty fair statement that one shouldn’t use one’s privilege to engage in criminal activities. Am I missing something?
He is referencing noblesse oblige: the idea that posh toffs have extra duties to behave in a noble way, do charitable work etc. — but which also is used to give the aristocracy a justification for their privilege. There are soooo many ways to unpack this.
Not necessarily. I know people who aren’t well off wanting to help others and they cite the same reasons. I think people take things the wrong way when he says it because he is Posh and it kinda proves his point about how he can’t win with it.
Of course, but I am referring to his comments in this interview which are very specifically about class and privilege. Read the quote. There is a traditional way of thinking about this among the aristocracy–he refers to it– and it is very much related to the idea that wealth properly belongs to and is best managed by the elite. This is what he is talking about.
He’s talking about the book, though, not about himself. He’s specifically talking about what he thinks that Le Carre believes from reading the book, and how that is reflected in the character he plays in the show.
And seriously, he’s not stretching for an interpretation and inadvertently revealing something hidden about his beliefs – he’s practically paraphrasing Pine’s lines from the end of the first episode.
I was not implying that he agrees with le Carre or Pine. Though he could. I think it is interesting though how this topic is his stumbling block across interviews.
Miss J I don’t think he stumbled in this interview – he is putting across what he believes is Le Carre’s attitude.
Miss Jup
He’s not stumbling over anything. He said nothing wrong. I under stand the concept of noble oblige, but you can’t always use that at every good thing a privilege person says or does. In this case noble oblige does not apply. It is a perfectly legitimate point to be extra disgusted by privileged, immoral criminals that had every advantage and opportunity available to them, and still chose to break laws, hurt and cheat people.
@MissJupiter
Not all aristocracy or Eton graduates have this opinion as a matter of course.Some comes from families as well and this is from my personal experience.
England is obsessed with class-and it took me a while to understand the history.I was at a college with a mixture of educational backgrounds.Those with public school education spent a lot time apologising for it at the beginning but once the study started every body just concentrated on the acting.
Mind you everyone took delight in taking the piss out of my accent when we did anything Shakespearean.
icerose, you should have pointed out that nobody knows what Shakespeare sounded like when he spoke!
@spidey At that time I was not up to speed with concepts on Shakespearian language or I would have done but I did notice a certain amount of prejudice against Americans at that time and so did my brother when he was working over in England at that time.But i have heard from colleagues that have worked in the States that Brits are treated very well but not the poor Canadians who just get made fun of because of their political correctness.
But even better I have seen changes as well.
Speaking of criminals doesn’t Jordan Vogt Roberts look like a candidate for the no fly list? That beard makes him look like a terrorist.
That beard has a life and mind of its own
It’s a hipster beard – they’re all the rage hereabouts.
He looks like a Kardashian sister who has missed a few waxing appointments…
Dara sometimes you just kill me.
Thank you Cranberry! I save all my best snark for CB.
A Tom post with under 50 comments? Lord Dragonfly must be losing his mojo.
That’s probably because there’s no mention of a female he may or may not be seeing in the original post. Nothing riles us more than his sex life 😉
Shame on you Kate. Don’t go spreading vile rumors that our boy actually has had *whispers* sex. There is no definitive proof, photographic or otherwise, that the assumption you are making is a reasonable one. That kind of talk is disgraceful rumor-mongering and hysterical speculation, and I simply won’t stand for it. I’m scurrying away to go think chaste, platonic thoughts until I’ve regained my composure. \sarcasm\
😂😂
Now, Dara, we all know that if one is photographed with someone else, a platonic relationship is impossible. Tom has had sex with all his cast mates, including Judi Dench, John Goodman, Miss Piggy, and the horse in War Horse. Because there were pictures on Instagram!
They weren’t photographed with their arm around him near his house though.
I’d be way more likely to believe the on-set fling theory if it was a studio picture like Avengers or Kong they’d worked on together, where they’d have lots of downtime as part of an ensemble cast, but on an incredibly low-budget, short-scheduled film requiring very intense preparation, with him in the vast majority of the scenes, long shooting days, intense and continuous rehearsal and a lot of anxiety over the performance, and a starvation diet? I just can’t see it – not when TH is such a workaholic perfectionist.
The fact the the gossip mags were linking to EO to every other single man she had been working with also makes me sceptical – I think they were taking wild shots in the dark.
Clearly, I live my life by a very different set of rules when it comes to arms around people near my house.
@KTE
Agreed. Don’t think they were hooking up during the filming. Even if they were attracted to each other, I don’t think they started exploring their attraction, either dating, fwb or just besties, until after shooting and recording wrapped.
Same here.
I’m on the same wavelength as well.
Shhhhshh don’t tell them about the THEO sex tape …..
(Disclaimer This is a joke for normal people and fans)
😊
I, personally, would watch a sex tape with him in it. Hoo boy.
@Kate
So would I. Sign me up. I’ll bring the popcorn and a mop to clean up all the drool.
@Kate, I wouldn’t even hesitate.
Lol these Night Manager interviews Tom’s been giving are far better than the ones that’d been coming out lately which wanted to grill Tom more on his privilege than ask about the film he did. They end up revealing more about him than those that set out to excavate his character. When the article says it’s going to discuss his work, that’s what I’d like to see. When the article says it’s an in-depth conversation with Tom the man behind the actor, then I expect some questions about his privilege and upbringing.
Agreed. The only insightful thing that came out of that last privilege fishing article was that he plays monster with his niece.
UNCLE YAY MONSTER!
Give him to me!
*grabby hands*
@Kate
That’s right, Uncle ‘Yay’ Monster. I knew Ieft something out.
Not me -i think its been excavated to death-being an actor does not mean you have to give opinions on issues you do not want to just because some people with class issues feel you should-why not ask Hugh Laurie or Dominic West who also went to Eton or get an opinion from Kenneth Branagh who rises above it all and just gets on with acting and directing.
Or get angry about Eton boys who’s fathers influence get them off a prison sentence when they are found with child porn on their school computers as opposed to a few actors who are just doing their job.We know that Tom and others have financed young actors so they are obviously aware of the issue and do what they can.
Yeah, there’s stuff going on behind my curtains whenever I think of Hiddles and his Monkey Island’ arms as well.
I was enjoying the snaps of his GUNS from the zipline excursion that surfaced yesterday.
SAME. And that fact that his abs are in such great shape that he easily holds his knees up while the other guy has to drop and swing his legs. And the back flip dismount. Guh.
The GUNS are delicious.
The zip line pictures are getting me through a boring day
I adore Pine there’s something about him. I don’t think he’s like Bond and I hope Hidds doesn’t play Bond as ten character is one dimensional and predictable.
Cheeky point;
Has anyone notice that only one side of Hidds Chest is hairier? You know when he’s making eggs for Sophie in TNM and his shirt is undone and you can properly see his chest it’s hairier on the right hand side more than the left.
I will have to take several close looks at that. For art. Or science. Or the future of humanity.
Or for puppies. Or children, don’t forget the children.
@lilac honey, somewhere on tumblr right now someone will be investigating how Hidds has more chest hair on one side than the other. It’s a matter of time in that crazy Zone. I’ll give it till tomorrow when we have the goods 😉
There will be naysayers with photos with circles and arrows showing the hair is equal and there will be disciples who will also have photos with circles and arrows showing the hair to be different but they will take it much further and will shave half the hair off their heads. An epic meltdown will follow.
maybe he was half way through having hair implants for episode 2. I re watched ep I for the actual scenery and cinamatorgraphy.
Tonight i shall spend more time on Tom’s landscape and body sculpturing / shading etc .What is really unfair is that only the stars get body shading to help with the bulking up.
Crimson Peak and Star wars were both nominated for 9 awards each in the Saturn awards so all is not lost for CP.
I have re-watched episode 1 with very special attention to the cooking scene. Tom’s 12 chest hairs all seem to be in the center of his chest.
Not sure there seems to have been a slight rise in the amount of chest hair-i wonder what fertiliser he uses
He should properly remove his posh chip from his posh shoulders. LOL.
It is evident he is referring to the book. I guess one could read between the lines.
I like how he takes this long, convoluted verbal stroll through the world of politics, curtains, spies, pockets and beds without really saying anything. Still he makes it sound so sexy LOL
It’s all about the journey, not the destination, I’m happy to stroll with him any time.
He’s being careful what he says in case Sixer sees it! 🙂
If you have read the RT article I think he must have done a history of spying inclusive of motives/ world politics, filmography and basic spying requirements.
II am not looking forward to him returning to Marvel mode -I really like his commitment and writing for BFI which being Tom he takes very seriously.
I didn’t get a father/son vibe from the Pine/Roper characters. Where was that?
I think Hugh Laurie mentioned it in one of the interviews he gave. He played Roper as someone that was looking at Pine as a potential surrogate son, someone to share his accomplishments with and bequeath his empire to. Roper wanted to protect his own son from the ugliness, or knew the boy wouldn’t be strong enough to take over for his father.
I’m curious to see if Tom plays Pine as being tempted by Roper’s charm and glamorous lifestyle. The Pine of the novel was pretty unwavering in his hatred for Roper, but it might be more compelling to see him have at least some kind of connection with the man he’s trying to destroy.
Sounds a bit of Oedipus and Hamlet to me. All men want to kill their father. And take their place…?
I haven’t, either. But Bier and Debicki also talked about father-son relationship and Le Carre said that the two characters were really close in the drama. So I guess tha Farr’s script emphasized that aspect in latter episodes. Let’s wait and see. We’ve watched only ep. 1.